I don’t think we’ll see the next big MMO until the Metaverse and VR become mainstream. I’ve given up all hope of anything ever competing with WoW. It was such a phenomenal game that nothing else has ever even come close. We need the next iteration of immersion technology before something can compete.
I still miss that game so much.
I remember one New Year’s Eve in Goldshire. It still is honestly one of my favorite NYE. Getting drunk on voice chat, throwing fireworks, having engineers build all sorts of weird contraptions, some steamy chat with probably a balding dude playing a Night Elf chick.
I still play every expansion. I make a new character and level it to max. But it takes ages and I usually solo and when I hit max I mostly stop. It’s a little guilty pleasure.
I like to believe this is what kids today get with Fortnite and whatchamadoodle.
Maybe we’re already playing the next game.
At its peak wow dwarfs every mmorpg in history tho.
The current estimates are about 1.7m for FFXIV [1] and 1.2m for WoW [2] (+another 500k[3] if you include WoW classic, but there's some overlap between retail and classic). Since neither company releases subscriber counts that's our best guess.
It's clear FFXIV was ahead of WoW while FFXIV was undergoing it's endwalker pre-launch hype and did well to retain those players post-launch compared to prior expansions, while at the same time WoW was undergoing it's peak period of shadowlands discontent. But as WoW gets into dragonflight hype mode and FFXIV is between patches, it looks like WoW has drawn back even for a while.
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/u0gfwo/new_lucky_ban...